1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the management of abrupt disconnects of customer contacts at contact centers. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for managing abruptly disconnected contacts to interactive voice response (IVR) systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Automated transaction distribution systems, utilizing IVR systems, employ automated procedures to distribute customer specific transactions to available contact center agents, who are employed to handle those particular transactions requested by the customer. According to certain automated procedures, an attempt is made to match a customer's requested transaction to the best-qualified agent having the skills to handle the particular requirements of the transaction.
In performing the match, utilizing an IVR system, contacts (e.g., calls) are often placed in queues, which are then serviced by specific groupings of agents. The term “contacts” includes but is not limited to calls using a telephone, cellular telephone, VoIP telephone or Skype-like systems, whereby a customer may connect with an IVR system of a contact center by any of the aforementioned means. For simplicity, the terms “call” or “calls” will be used to include but not be limited to any of the above means of connecting with a contact center and utilizing its IVR system.
Although numerous algorithms have been developed to control the wait times for these waiting calls to receive service, it is not unusual for wait times to be excessive. A customer may become quite agitated and abruptly disconnect from the IVR system. Alternatively, an abrupt disconnect may occur not due to the customer but rather due to processor error or exceptions in the IVR system itself or network issues.
Abrupt disconnections have become especially prevalent with the widespread use of wireless communication devices, such as cellular phones, VoIP, and the like, which have created a number of problems for contact centers. The longer a wireless contact remains in queue, for example, the more air time minutes are consumed, with a concomitant increase in the cost to the customer associated with the interaction with the contact center.
These costs have led many users to disconnect or abandon the contact when the wait time reaches a perceived level of unacceptability. Wireless communication device, VoIP, and the like, users also experience disconnects as a result of service disruptions (e.g., dead zones, cell transitions, dropped packets, internet service provider problems, and the like). Furthermore, as mentioned previously, calls may be abruptly disconnected due to network issues or processing error/exceptions in the IVR systems.
When contacts are dropped, the customer ordinarily re-connects with the contact center again and end ups being re-queued from the very beginning. The re-queuing or “starting over” can lead to further frustrations caused by increased air time minutes required to interact with the contact center. Finally, many wireless customer contacts encounter poor call quality while waiting in queue. When the contact is ultimately serviced, the poor call quality may detrimentally impact the ability of the contact center to provide satisfactory service. Again, the customer contact may abruptly disconnect for this and/or a combination of the aforementioned reasons.
Although some contact centers permit a customer contact to “opt out” under specified circumstances, the contact centers usually wait for the call to be delivered to the agent before calling back the caller. Such call center products, for example, are offered by Genesys and Zeacom. These products allow a customer to maintain his or her place in queue and have the system contact the customer once the contact, e.g., the call, is delivered to the agent. These known products virtually maintain the caller's place in queue without the caller having to be physically connected.
The failure to synchronize the initiation of the contact with the agent being ready to service the contact can unnecessarily tie up contact center resources, such as the servicing agent, waiting for the customer to respond and lengthen the time required for the customer to receive service or complete its transaction.
In addition, the customer may wish to be reconnected into the previous IVR session instead of being contacted by an agent. In these types of situations, it would be advantageous for that customer to receive either a voice message, instant message or an SMS (i.e., text message), providing stored IVR information (e.g., options keystring) to allow the caller to resume the IVR session at the point he/she left off from the previous contact.
Known systems generally provide for a means to resume a session between a customer contact and an IVR system and routing the customer to the point where the previous session was abruptly disconnected. Furthermore, stored status information retrieved will set the session to be resumed according to that status information. Customized IVR menu scripts, which correspond to the status information, may be invoked in order to resume the session where it was abruptly disconnected.
Although these known processes assist in somewhat satisfying customers' needs, precious automated processing resources, as well as service agent and manager resources, are utilized and expended in an effort to re-connect a customer contact where an apparent abrupt disconnected had been detected. This includes, but is not limited to, storing the previous IVR session, storing the status information, along with the options selected on the IVR system, and notifying the customer via voice message, instant messaging or SMS containing, for example, the options keystring selected before the disconnect.
However, with these aforementioned provisions being expended, there is no way of knowing if the customer contact is ultimately satisfied, or has been provided with sufficient options, with such call re-connect efforts. Stated another way, there are no known systems or methods that provide the customer contact with options to decide where in the IVR session to resume, and furthermore where such options may be dependent upon variations of contact abrupt disconnecting scenarios.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for managing abrupt contact disconnects where the customer is provided with options and where such options may be based upon variations of the disconnect scenarios.